The very night of Lloyd and Amata's return to Megaton, the door of Vault 101 slid open again. It had been doing a lot of that recently, in stark contrast to its usual state of lockdown.
The law of the vault was broken once more as two people left the vault that night: vault officers Wolfe and Park, the two who had let Lloyd and Amata go, against the Overseer's orders. Very recently, they had accompanied the Overseer to the surface alongside the strange man the Overseer knew somehow. The two officers weren't even the officers entrusted with the knowledge of the man's existence. During the Freeman escape, however, the others had all died or suffered significant injury, save for Officer Gomez, which promoted them in rank.
The man, the bounty hunter, had a heart monitor which operated on a certain radio frequency. It had been what alerted the Overseer to his death. Furious, he commanded Wolfe and Park to go outside and find his body to investigate his death. He needed to know what had killed him. If he had died of a gunshot, the Overseer would assume that the ever-troublesome Lloyd, the kidnapper of his daughter, was responsible. If otherwise... the Overseer left it at that. He wanted to know what had happened.
Wolfe hated the outside; years of underground life had indoctrinated him to it, and as such, he felt incredible fear of not being surrounded by walls. He felt exposed. But he knew better than to disobey the Overseer, and so he and Park, reluctantly, ventured into the wasteland. Their Pip-Boys had been configured with a special frequency detection module that would let them track the exact position of the man's body.
"Fucking hate it out here," Wolfe commented. The moonlight lit the land, just enough to see.
"I know. So do I. He's not far, let's just get it over with," Park said, walking around a rock. Both of their pistols were out, not due to any signs of danger, but for apprehension of it.
"The Overseer's getting fucking crazy, I tell you," Wolfe said. "He should just have let his daughter and that Freeman kid rot out here and leave it at that."
"He's a passionate man, and he knows what's best for the vault," Park reminded his partner of the Overseer's creed, even if he didn't believe it himself.
"He's putting us in danger out here, and I swear to god it's not worth it," Wolfe said. Suddenly, he jerked around, waving his gun. "Did you hear that?! I heard something!" he cried.
"Shut up," Park said as he stopped. He listened for a moment, only catching the wind. "I don't hear anything. Let's keep going, he should be just up over that hill."
Park led the way, Wolfe stepping backwards, convinced he had heard something. His gun hand was shaking and he tried his best to steady his nerves.
"I see the body!" Park called, suddenly far away. Wolfe turned around and realized that he hadn't kept up with the other officer as quickly as he had thought. Park was atop a hill, and he moved down the back of it, out of sight. Nervously, Wolfe walked up the hill, but stumbled a little and tripped. As he hit the ground, he thought he heard a noise. Had Park said something?
"Hey, Park!" Wolfe said, standing up and dusting himself off. "Park!"
No response.
Wolfe's blood chilled. Gripping his gun tightly, his hands suddenly very sweaty and his mouth very dry, he ran up the hill. He stopped and aimed at the bottom clearing, where Park and the corpse should have been.
The irrational part of Wolfe's mind made him freeze in terror. The rational part of Wolfe's mind figured it all out. The monster that was currently tearing Park to pieces and shredding his insides, feasting on his organs, had clearly happened upon the bounty hunter earlier that day. It ate his heart, and that is how they tracked it here. Not the man, but the monster that had consumed him.
It stood at least eight feet tall, maybe more, as it was hunched over on wicked, devil-like legs. Its horns curved forward, like a bull. It had a tail that slithered from side to side in apparent, cruel delight as it dined upon Officer Park. Its hide was rough, leathery, like a lizard's. And its claws... Those horrible, death-giving claws...
It turned and saw Wolfe. Its eyes burned through the night with a cold, white luminescence. It opened its mouth, full of dagger-like teeth. From its throat emerged a malevolent hiss that grew into an awful, spine-wracking howl.
It charged up the hill, faster than a creature of its size would appear to be able to move.
To Wolfe's credit, he made it to the bottom of his side of the hill before it caught him.
Lloyd's eyes slowly blinked open, adjusting to the dim lighting in his shack's bedroom. Groggily, he lifted up his left arm and checked the time on his Pip-Boy. 'Half past five in the morning...' he thought, barely coherent. He was thirsty; the curse of being a mouth-breather while he slept left him with a dry mouth each morning. 'Some water in the fridge...'
He tried to move, but then realized and remembered he was not alone in the small bed. Amata was still fast asleep, her head resting comfortably on his chest. Unconsciously in the night, his right arm had wrapped around her waist. Their vault jumpsuits were lazily thrown in one corner, leaving them only in their underclothing, which consisted of white tees and semi-tight underwear.
'This is going to take some getting used to,' he thought. "Amata."
She groaned lazily in response. He smiled. "Amata, wake up, it's the morning."
"Couple more minutes..." she said, curling up against him.
He chuckled softly. "While I'm enjoying the company, I need my arm for the day's activities. It's kind of needed. I'm right-handed, you see," Lloyd said, his smile growing. She looked up at him through half-closed eyes.
"Quit being a smartass..." she quipped.
Minutes later, they were redressed in their jumpsuits and getting ready for the day. "You know, sooner or later we're going to have to find new clothing, or at least, wash these suits. And ourselves. Is there a shower somewhere in town?" she asked.
"No idea," Lloyd said. "Haven't thought about it, but now that I am, I don't know how anybody keeps clean in the wastes."
"Maybe they don't," Amata thought aloud. Lloyd grew quiet and zipped up his suit. 'That's one thing I miss about the vault,' Amata thought, 'a nice morning shower.'
Lloyd was more determined to focus on the brighter side of things. "I'm going to head downstairs and see about breakfast," he told her. She followed him down a minute later, having finished tying her dark hair back.
"What's on the menu?" Amata asked Lloyd, who was in the kitchen area.
"Crappy food or slightly less crappy food? I'm sorry, it's all pretty crappy," Lloyd joked, pulling out some Sugar Bombs. "Cereal?" he asked. She nodded. He tossed her the box.
"No bowls yet, eh?" she said, opening it up and eating a handful of the nuke-shaped treats.
"I'll let you know when I come across a full set of china and silverware while out in the wastes." He grabbed the box from her, taking some out and popping them in his mouth. The sugar hardly masked the staleness. It took some coercion for him to swallow the cereal. "Ohhh... my stomach isn't going to like me," he said, sitting down in one of the two chairs they owned. Amata chewed her food in silence.
"I think I'm going to head up to the saloon, maybe see if Moriarty is open for talking. I need to talk to him about my father," he said. She paused in her eating.
"And if not?"
"Moira's got some work lined up for us. Seeing as how we got the sanitizer and the purifier, I think she's a good source of work. We'll need all the caps we can get, probably."
"I think we should take it easy for a while, Lloyd," she said, giving him pause. "We don't need to go out every day and get ourselves killed."
He was silent for a moment as he thought of something. "I'd like to teach you how to shoot," he changed the subject. "We can go just outside of town, find a nice rock or something. The broad side of a barn, maybe."
Amata continued, however, "That's not my point, Lloyd. I meant we don't have to venture out into the wastes every day, away from Megaton. It's dangerous out there. There are things out there that we haven't seen, and, quite frankly, we could do without seeing." She reached into the box and pulled out another handful and chewed silently.
Lloyd nodded. "I understand, Amata, I really do. But my father's out there, and I have to find him."
Amata thought about protesting once more, but decided against it. Lloyd stood up and gently placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Things will get better, Amata, I promise." He turned and left, headed for the saloon.
In that moment, Amata wished more than anything that she believed him.
On his way out, Lloyd was suddenly ambushed and shouted at. Confessor Cromwell, with three settlers behind him, were pointing at him and chanting the word "Deactivator! Deactivator! Deactivator!"
Lloyd was surprised, and held his hands up. "Um..." he spoke, trying to figure out what was going on. Cromwell stepped forward, looking very pale and slightly green.
"Deactivator!" he cried. "I label you the deactivator of His will! You have denied the growth of Atom, the spread of his glow!"
"Oh for the love of..." Lloyd muttered. 'Do I really have to deal with this right now?' he thought.
"You have prevented the growth of Atom, the chance for one to be divided in his Glow!"
"All I did was make it so that nobody in this town was at danger from the active bomb!" Lloyd said, almost shouting but keeping his cool. He didn't need to deal with this fanatic at this point in time.
"The waters that once held his Glow, the ones around the vessel, now run purged of his essence! They are without Him!" he cried.
Lloyd could hardly believe this crock. "Then crack open the damn bomb and drink up the green goo! That's some 'Glow' for you right there!" Lloyd said, pushing through them. He had to get to the saloon. Cromwell cried after him.
"The Glowing Ones will burn out your eyes!" he cried, drawing gasps from the others. Lloyd turned back to him, seeing him standing apart from the others.
"The what?" he asked.
Cromwell threw his arms into the air, looking to the heavens.
"Those blessed by His Glow the most become avatars of His will! Warriors of His way! The ultimate form of evolution and greatness! The Glowing Ones! They burn bright with his power, for they are His true, blessed children! And they will burn the eyes from your very skull!" he cried.
Suddenly, Maya came running up a nearby ramp and smacked Cromwell in the back of the head, telling him to stop conjuring this nonsense. They began to argue on the spot about Lloyd's apparent desecration of the holy bomb.
"Stop this at once!" Maya commanded her husband. "This won't help the cause!"
"Atom deserves retribution, and the curse of the Glowing Ones has been bestowed! There is no greater punishment," Cromwell said.
"I'll go ahead and walk away now," Lloyd called out, causing both of them to turn to him. As Lloyd turned, Cromwell cried out his closing words.
"You can run on for a long time, but sooner or later, Atom will strike you down!" he cried.
'Run on this...' Lloyd thought about shouting back. He kept silent.
He entered the saloon. It was still as dim as he had remembered it, back when he first entered and met Gob, Nova and Burke. Gob noticed him and smiled, his cracked lips curling into a smile.
"Hey, if it isn't my favorite smoothskin," he greeted.
Lloyd smiled, and noticed that the radio was still on and still blaring static. Occasionally, a word or two of some song got through the static, but it was rare.
"Moriarty in?" Lloyd asked.
"Who the hell's askin', eh?" someone spoke with a sharp accent. Lloyd looked over and saw a man with defining gray hair, combed back, in addition to a thick goatee. He wore a black, leather vest over a white shirt. His eyes were a steel grey, and they seemed to see right through Lloyd.
"I am," Lloyd said, turning to face him. "Moriarty, I presume?"
"Colin. Colin Moriarty, at yer service," he said, holding out his hand. Lloyd shook it. "Welcome to my saloon, kid. My saloon, my home, my little slice 'o heaven in this here backwards little berg. If you've got the caps, I've got yer pleasure. Please, sit down and make yerself comfortable. Yer troubles are a thing 'o the past."
"He's not new, Colin. He's the one that got Burke arrested," Nova said, smoking a cigarette, as always.
"Oh really now?" Colin said, looking Lloyd up and down. "This here little boy is the one what got Burke taken down, eh? Well, good for ya." He clapped Lloyd on the shoulder. "More power to ya, eh?"
"I've been meaning to talk to you, Moriarty." Lloyd cleared his throat. "I'm looking for my father, a middle-aged guy named James Freeman. I've heard he passed through here some time ago."
Colin's eyes widened with sudden recognition, which surprised and confused Lloyd a bit.
"My god... it's you! The little baby boy, all grown up..." he said, then laughed a bit. "Persistent little bastard, ain't ya? Then an now, it would seem. Oh, how the years fly by… It's been a long time, kid."
"I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met before..." Lloyd said.
"Oh, yer daddy passed through here, all right. Here and gone. Got what he came for and left. I'm assumin' ye'll do the same, correct?" Almost as if to drive the point home, he continued, adding, "Just like when you were a little baby boy, crying yer eyes out in the upper floors of this very building." Gob, Nova and everyone else in the saloon grew silent, intent on listening. Gob turned off the crackling radio.
"What?" Lloyd was confused. "I'm sorry, you must be mistaken. My father and I were born in Vault 101..."
Moriarty laughed heartily, making Lloyd feel rather foolish with everyone watching. "Is that, is that, what your father told ya? That he was born in that hole? That ye were born in there as well?" He clutched his sides, and, to Lloyd's ultimate surprise, wiped a tear from his eye. He found it that hilarious. "Oh," he said, growing contemplative, "the lies we tell to those we love..."
Everyone was quiet, save for Moriarty. Lloyd felt himself grow frustrated.
"Just what are you playing at, Moriarty?" he demanded to know.
"Yer father brought ye to Vault 101 not long after ya were born. To keep ya safe ye see. I remember it well; ye stayed in my saloon after all." He crossed his arms and scratched his beard. "It's true. Yer father, his Brotherhood 'o Steel friend, and you, the sucklin' babe with nary a tit to suckle. Sorry about yer mom, truly."
"The hell are you talking about!?" Lloyd nearly shouted. Everyone in the saloon was leaning forward now, fully invested and interested in the conversation. Jericho downed a bottle of whiskey as he listened in. In a darkened corner, a young, blonde wastelander named Lucy West was similarly listening intently. Billy Creel, a regular at the saloon, watched and listened with equal investment.
"Ah, well, life goes on, eh? Daddy lied. Life's full 'o little disappointments. And now, here ya are, wonderin' where he's gone to." Moriarty chuckled to himself once more. "Delightful, really. A thing 'o beauty. Poetic, even."
'No... it can't be...' he thought. "My father told me we were born in Vault 101," Lloyd said. "He wouldn't have lied about it. I know it." Lloyd's mind was reeling. What would Moriarty gain by lying to him? This couldn't be the truth. It couldn't be.
"Ahh, I see... Ya know, I heard about the brainwashin' that goes on down there. From some other fella, escaped about, oh, five years back."
"Bullshit!" Lloyd accused. "The vault hasn't been opened in years!"
Moriarty raised his hands up, and spoke in a mocking voice. "All hail the Overseer! We're born in the vault, we die in the vault! And all that other assorted lunacy." Before Lloyd could respond, he continued. "Kid, you've got better programmin' than our own Deputy Weld. Better wise up. Wouldn't want anyone... takin' advantage of ya, hmm?"
Lloyd was stunned. "This... No..." He shook his head, trying to clear it. "Look, I just need to find my father. Please, just tell me where he is."
Moriarty dropped his arms to his sides, standing tall and strong. "Ye seem like a nice kid, so I'm goin' to be straight with ya. Yer dad was here, and now he's not. And yes, I know where he went. Had a little chat wid'im. But what yer askin' me for is information, and information is a commodity, as far as I'm concerned."
"Name your price..." Lloyd muttered.
"Let's say... Several hunnerd caps, and dear old daddy's location is all yours. Very Reasonable." Moriarty grinned while he spoke.
Lloyd sighed in frustration, covering his face with his hand. "Goddamnit, I don't have that much money. I... I don't have that much money."
"Alright then kid, lemme help ye out. Ya know, for old time's sake and all," he said, clapping Lloyd on the shoulder once more. Lloyd nearly winced from the contact of this slime ball. "If ya don't have the caps to pay for the information, maybe ye can do me a little favor."
Lloyd scowled. "You mean your dirty work, right?"
Despite Lloyd's look of disdain, Moriarty grinned even more. "Who said anything about dirty work, eh? Ye need some caps and I'm just givin' ya a way to get them, it's just business."
Lloyd felt like spitting on the man's shoes. He hated dealing with this guy already. "Whaddaya want, Moriarty," he said, "because I don't have all day."
Colin laughed. "Alright. There's this junkie bitch named Silver who burrowed a buncha caps from me. Claimed she could start funneling jet and psycho to me at a good price. Problem is she ran off with the caps and set herself up in Springvale so she could inject herself into a stupor. Get those caps offa her and they're yours. Yours to pay me with anyway," he laughed.
Lloyd turned to leave. As he neared the door, he spoke. "I'll see what I can do, Moriarty."
"Little bit of caps for so much information. Think about it," Colin called out.
Lloyd shut the door behind him, leaving the saloon full of patrons who had just seen one of the most interesting gossip topics in a long while. Lloyd didn't see it the same way.
'My father... I wasn't born in Vault 101...'
His entire life his father had lied to him. Moriarty had no reason to lie, aside from being scum, but scum only lie when they have something to gain. Moriarty had nothing to gain telling Lloyd the truth of his infancy, save perhaps his own amusement.
'I wasn't born in Vault 101...'
His father had warned him of the surface. Had warned him of the dangers. Because he really did know about them, because he had seen them himself. Because he was born there, on the surface, in the wasteland.
And so was Lloyd.
'I wasn't born in Vault 101...'
He found breathing difficult. He walked through Megaton in almost a trance, nearly unaware of his surroundings. He bumped into someone he didn't recognize. He saw his shack up ahead. Amata nearly shouted in surprise when Lloyd burst through the door. She had been in the kitchen, filling up empty bottles she had found with water from the sink, to reuse them. The water was a little cloudy, but it was still water. As Lloyd stumbled in and fell to his knees, holding himself up with his hands, she dropped the bottle in the sink and ran to him. He was on the verge of crying heavily, but was holding it at bay.
She knelt before him and gently lifted his head to stare into his green eyes, which had clear lines of tears streaming from them. His teeth were gritted, and his breathing was labored.
"What is it?" she asked, deeply concerned for him. "Lloyd, tell me what's wrong..." She used her thumb to wipe away some of his tears.
"I... I..." he choked on his words. "It's all a lie..." he said, looking back to the floor, "all one, big, goddamned lie!" He slammed his hands on the ground in anger. "All of it! My father lied to me! About everything! Every-fucking-thing I've ever known or been told is just lies!"
She wasn't sure what he was talking about, but she knew something had happened to him. She hugged him, soothing his hair with one hand. "Tell me what happened, Lloyd... Please, tell me..." What could have caused this to happen to Lloyd? He was always emotional and passionate, but it would have taken something powerful to drive him to this condition.
He returned her embrace and sobbed. "Lloyd, talk to me..." she pleaded.
"Oh god, I… I don't know what I… I…" he rambled a bit.
Amata pulled back to look at him. "Lloyd..."
"I wasn't born in Vault 101."
Amata's shock was clear.
"What? Who told you that? Of course you were," she said. He shook his head.
"I, I heard it from Moriarty, Amata. When… I was a baby, my father came here with me and somebody else and stayed in the saloon," he explained. Amata couldn't believe it. "I was a baby... and my father, he took me to Vault 101 to raise me away from the wasteland."
"Lloyd... this can't be true. He's lying," she told him. And she believed it. It had to be a lie. Lloyd was born in the vault.
"No, I wasn't!" Lloyd shouted, looking up at her. "My father lied to me my entire life, Amata! The only truth I've ever gotten about my birth, about my mother, came from a fucking scumbag who runs a saloon!"
Amata was speechless. All she could do was shake her head in disbelief.
Lloyd continued. "I was born out here, Amata, in the wasteland. So was my father, I know it. All my life I've known it, felt like I didn't belong in the vault, wanted to know what's outside... because that's my birthplace, Amata! That's my home!" He wasn't crying anymore. He had regained his composure. "My father lied to me and abandoned me. I need to find this man and I better get some goddamn answers," he spoke, standing up and moving upstairs. Amata moved to follow him.
"Lloyd, what are you doing?!" she asked, seeing him emerge from their bedroom her her sword in hand.
"Finding my father," he said, moving to go out that door. Amata caught his arm.
"Lloyd, stop!" she said, holding him back. He struggled, but stopped and looked at her.
"Don't stop me from getting what I need to know out of Moriarty. Don't stop me!" he shouted.
Amata let go. "Is that a warning?" she asked. Lloyd paused, losing his bluster. She looked at him with sympathetic eyes. "Lloyd... I don't know if you were born out here or not... but I do know that you don't have to act like a… like a raider or something just because you were."
Lloyd looked to the ground, and dropped the sword. "I..." he began, having a hard time finding words. "I don't know what this is anymore... all of it... I thought I knew where I was, where I had come from, why I'm here, but now…"
She went to him and hugged him once more. "Lloyd, I'm here for you. Even if you... weren't born in Vault 101... I'm here for you," she said. "I promised to stop you from becoming a monster, and I will." To drive the point home, she repeated herself once more. "I'm here for you."
Lloyd nodded. "I know... I'm okay..." he said, taking deep, slow breaths. After a moment, he was calm again.
"Lloyd..." she spoke quietly, "you know I love you, right?" She wanted to make sure he knew she was going to help him.
Though he was still shaken up, he smiled. "You're the best thing that ever happened to me in Vault 101, Amata."
They shared a kiss. When they broke apart, she spoke to him in a calm, understanding tone. "Lloyd, we're going to learn what we need to learn from Moriarty. Did he tell you where to find your father?"
Lloyd said, "No. He wants me to find a former girl of his, over in Springvale. She's got caps he wants, and I'm supposed to get them, somehow."
Amata was silent for a moment. "We aren't, are we?" she asked. Lloyd shook his head.
"I'm not going to lower myself by doing his dirty work," he said. "I know for a fact that he has a terminal in the back of the saloon with all the information I'll need on it. I need to get to that terminal and hack it."
She nodded. "Okay, Lloyd. That's a much better alternative, right?" she said, leaning down and picking up the sword.
"Yeah, it is." He took another steadying breath. "I'm sorry, Ama-" He was halfway through apologizing when Amata silenced him with a kiss.
"Don't even mention it, Lloyd. And I've already got a plan."
They waited until dark, staying mostly out of the way from everyone in the town, especially Lloyd, who wanted to avoid the questions and rumors flying about him since his public conversation with Moriarty.
During the time between then and night, however, Lloyd spent some time teaching Amata what he knew about handling guns. They went outside of Megaton, not too far away, to practice. They didn't waste too much ammunition. Lloyd didn't want to spend too many of their caps on more ammo. While outside, shooting at rocks, they learned how to effectively use the laser pistols they had acquired at the Super-Duper Mart, as they felt they had energy cells to spare.
Another caravan had made its way to Megaton. Billy Creel introduced the two of them to Crazy Wolfgang, a rather odd merchant who sold, by his own words, "Garbage." They found nothing useful; quite literally the man sold junk, scrap and seemingly useless salvage, so they let the strange man sell what he had to sell to the people of Megaton. They walked east a bit, somewhat near Springvale to shoot.
Fortunately, they didn't encounter anything dangerous. The proximity to Megaton may have helped, or the noises their guns made did. For Lloyd, their day together in the wasteland was more of a distraction than anything else. It kept his mind from thoughts that threatened to overwhelm him once more
It wasn't until dark that they returned to put Amata's plan into action. Over the past couple days, she had noticed a locked back entrance to Moriarty's saloon. Working with Lloyd, they figured that right behind that locked door must be the terminal that held the location of Lloyd's father.
The plan itself was relatively simple; simply wait for the majority of Megaton to fall asleep and then have Amata pick the lock on the door. Lloyd goes in, hacks the terminal, gets the information on his Pip-Boy and gets out. Simple, as far as plans go. They just needed to be a little patient.
After successfully attacking the lock with her bobby pins, she took a look inside. Sure enough, there was the terminal. Its screen glowed a bright green color.
She turned back, giving him a nod. "Go, Lloyd!" she whispered, urging him on. Lloyd crouched low and snuck inside and looked around for Colin.
'No sign of Moriarty...' he thought. He snuck up to the computer and activated it, being careful not to set off any alarms, if they existed. Lloyd could imagine Moriarty being a rather cautious man.
Lloyd wasn't sure he liked this, breaking into someone's property and hacking into their most prized possession. 'I can deal with the bad karma later,' he reassured himself and proceeded. With a wire, he connected his Pip-Boy to Moriarty's computer and began to run the decoding program to find the password. It didn't take too long to crack it.
There was a lot of information on this terminal, too many files for Lloyd to read right now. Like before, in the Overseer's office, he began to download all the files onto his Pip-Boy for later viewing. His father's location was in here, he just knew it.
As the download continued, he became worried that Moriarty might walk in at any moment. It was becoming tense for him, and every small noise nearly caused him to jump.
The download finished a moment later, relieving the paranoid hacker. He disconnected the wire and logged off, shutting down the terminal to eliminate any evidence that he was here. He slipped out the back, and found Amata waiting not too far away, looking as inconspicuous as possible. She looked at him as he left the building, closing the door behind him.
"Did you get what you needed?" she asked. He nodded, holding up his Pip-Boy.
"It's all on here," he answered. "Let's get back home."
"You sure he's alive?" one of the mercenaries asked his group leader.
"He's alive, alright. Held captive in the town." The merc leader struck up a match and lit the cigarette hanging from his lips.
"We gotta get him out, right?" one of the other mercs asked.
"We go in, bust him out, get him back to Tenpenny Tower, alive, and get paid a shitload of caps," the leader told him. "That's the objective, keeping him alive. I don't need one of you fuckers screwing this up, because I will personally sink two in each of your tenspots, got that?" He held up a pistol to elaborate on his threat.
The men knew he would, too. He was ruthless by reputation; they knew he would do anything to get the job done and done right.
"What about the people in the town?" another merc asked.
The leader looked at him. "The fuck's that supposed to mean? You queasy over killing civilians?"
"No, no! What I meant was, can we shoot 'em?"
The leader smirked. In his hands, he twirled a special knife he wielded, which he had affectionately named 'Occam's Razor.' He looked at the man who had asked. "Well kid, there's a certain beauty about working with Talon Company. It has its own... rewards."
"Anything yet?" Amata asked, sitting in a chair and drinking some water. She grimly noticed that they were running low on purified water, and even their water purifier they had gotten from Moira didn't completely eliminate the radiation from the liquid. Even though she had argued with Lloyd against going into the wasteland again so soon, she saw the benefits of scavenging in it. The only problem was she also saw the consequences, namely the decapitated bodies at the Super-Duper Mart. The last thing she wanted was to end up a dismembered corpse hanging from chains, serving no the purpose than cruel entertainment, a warning or target practice. Or the man who had fallen to the radscorpion.
Lloyd didn't respond right away, so immersed was he in searching through the new files on his Pip-Boy. They were all labeled something or other, usually by name. Then, he found it.
"James Freeman comma Vault 101," he read aloud. Amata stood up. He looked to her. "This is it... the proof that I either am or am not a wastelander." She put her hand on his shoulder, a silent reminder of her promise of being there for him. He took a steadying breath and opened the file, and began to read it.
"What's it say?" she asked.
Lloyd finished reading the entry and answered.
"Galaxy News Radio."
"...What?" she asked. Lloyd turned his Pip-Boy radio on and tuned into a specific frequency, one he had gotten from Gob in the saloon. Static blared out, occasionally clearing up a bit so that one or two words could be heard.
"The entry says my dad asked Colin where he could go to figure out what's been happening in the wasteland since he entered the vault with me." Lloyd paused for a moment, considering that everything Moriarty had told him was true. "He's at the Galaxy News Radio building in Washington D.C., or headed there right now."
Amata nodded in understanding. "You okay?" He sighed and nodded as well.
"I'm alright. I think the truth of it just, just hit me really hard earlier today. I... I'm gonna try not to let it happen again," he said.
"Everyone needs to just let out their feelings sometimes, Lloyd. Even you."
Taking another deep breath, he said, "Yeah, I know. So... now I guess we go to D.C. and try to find him, huh?"
Amata looked unsure. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea."
Lloyd looked at her. "What? Why?" he asked.
She detected the animosity in his voice. "Don't be angry, Lloyd. I know finding your father means a lot to you."
"I just meant... I just want to understand why you think it's a bad idea," he clarified.
"Well, you know I talked with some of the people around town, right? They told me about the ruins of D.C., how it's almost completely destroyed. Collapsed buildings, tunnels and massive wreckage... it's probably a lot worse than either of us can imagine."
"We'll be careful, then. We can deal with ruins."
"But it's crawling with mutants," she said.
"We've dealt with mutants. We can deal with more," he said, reassuring her.
"But not super mutants, Lloyd."
"Super mutants?" To Lloyd, the name sounded ridiculous. "They sound like a child's attempt at naming big, ugly monsters."
"This isn't a joke, Lloyd!" Amata stomped her foot on the ground, and Lloyd's smile vanished. "They're heavily mutated humans! They're big, over eight feet tall I heard, with green skin from all the radiation!"
"Big green men?" Lloyd said. Again, he couldn't suppress a smile. "Sounds really bad."
She was getting fed up with him not taking the wasteland seriously. "They also capture wastelanders and carry them off to god-knows-where! They murder and kill everyone in their way, and the ruins of D.C. are fucking crawling with them!" she cried. "Smile about that!"
She stormed upstairs, pushing past him. Lloyd chased after her, but she slammed the door to their bedroom in his face.
After trying to open the door and finding that she was holding it shut, he sighed and leaned against it. "Okay, Amata. I'm sorry. Look, I know you're frightened of what the wasteland has to offer. I... I am too, when I get down to it. I don't want to go out there. And these... super mutants... they sound bad, they really do. There's a lot to the wasteland we haven't seen yet..."
He waited for a response, but none came.
"...But we have to go out and experience it ourselves, Amata. We can hear as much as we like from other people, but we need to go to D.C. and find my father. Please... please just open the door."
After a moment, the door opened. Amata stood there with small tears forming in her eyes. "I don't like it out there, Lloyd, I really, really don't. I just want you to know that."
He understood. "You don't have to go with me, if you don't want to. You can stay here..."
Shaking her head, she cut him off, saying, "We don't need to go over this again, Lloyd. Out here, I need you and you need me. It won't do us any good to keep saying it over and over again." She walked over and hugged him. "It's already perfect the way it is."
"So it's a codependent relationship then? My medical and psychological work has shown those to be rather unhealthy for the two involved," he joked.
"I don't think it's that serious yet," Amata smiled, despite her vanishing distress.
"Yet?" Lloyd pointed out. They shared a laugh, which turned into a supportive hug.
"We need to go to D.C.," he reminded. "But I won't go if you don't want to go."
"That's a lie, Lloyd. You're not very good at lying. We're going to go... but we shouldn't go alone."
"What do you mean?" Lloyd leaned back to look at her.
"We need to find someone who can take us to Galaxy News Radio. If it's in D.C., and the entire city is destroyed, it can be anywhere, right? It won't do us any good to try searching every rock in the city until we find where your father went. We need... a guide."
Lloyd silently thought for a moment. "How'd I not think of that?" he said, mostly to himself.
Amata smiled. "Because you're dumb and I'm not."
"Teasing isn't very nice, Miss Almodovar..."
She smiled and stepped out of the embrace and back into the room, pulling down the zipper on her jumpsuit. "Well, what are you waiting for? It's late. The bed will get cold with only one person in it."
He smiled and closed the door behind him. They'd see about a guide in the morning.
Lloyd paused after he had shut the door. He looked at Amata getting ready for bed, simply taking in the sight of her for a moment. She caught his gaze. "Lloyd?"
Silently, he walked over and knelt beside her, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I love you, Amata. There's nothing I want more than to keep you safe. That's what frightens me about going out there. I'm conflicted, I admit. I want to find my father and I want you to be safe."
She moved to face him fully. "Lloyd, we'll keep each other safe." She hugged him, burying her face in his neck.
He closed his eyes and gently stroked her hair. "I know… I know…"
He decided he had said enough. Internally, he resolved to pay more attention to Amata's feelings. He wanted to make sure they would get through this together, no matter what.
He knew that losing her would destroy him.
"Well you've been out there, haven't you, Billy?" Lloyd asked. Billy nodded his head.
"Yes, and I'm tellin' ya that I ain't goin' back out there any time soon, I'm sorry ta say," Billy said, downing a beer. Lloyd run his hands through his brown hair, frustration mounting. Gob was wiping the bar, and continued to do so as he spoke.
"I'd keep your voice down, kid, unless you want Moriarty to come out from his room again. You didn't do that thing for him, didya?" the ghoul asked.
Lloyd shook his head and then turned back to Billy. "All I'm saying, Billy, is that you could take me to Galaxy News Radio and then take me back once I find my father."
Billy wiped his lips and turned his barstool to face the persistent Lloyd. "Now Lloyd, I like ya. I can't say that 'bout a whole mess'a people in this here town. So I'll tell ya, plain and straight like, that I ain't goin' back out inta the wastes."
"Billy, I can pay if that's what this is about," Lloyd said.
"That ain't it by a goddamn mile," Billy said, standing up. He looked at Lloyd and stared him down with his one working eye. "Now I gotta little girl, Lloyd. I take care of her. I made a promise ta myself a long time ago that I'd never go back out inta the wastes so long as I had Maggie ta take care of. Maybe someday, Lloyd, ya just might find out what that feeling's like too."
Billy set a few caps on the table and walked out.
Lloyd sighed and then looked at Gob. "Hey Gob, what's the deal with Galaxy News Radio anyway? Why would my father go there?"
Gob continued to wipe the bar, but he spoke in his raspy voice. "The radio DJ, Three Dog, is a pretty neat guy. One of a kind, I think. He runs the station from the building in D.C. and plays good music. Before whatever happened to the signal, ya know," he said, pointing back at the radio which was still blaring out static. "Anyway, this guy, Three Dog, he's a really neat guy. He's fun to listen to. A lotta people in the wastes tune in to what he's got to say. He talks about all the stuff that goes on in the Capital Wasteland, see, and he's always talking about fighting the good fight."
That last part caught Lloyd's ears. "What's that? The good fight, I mean."
"Oh, it's something... like, um..." Gob scratched his scabby head. "I think it's just doing good things for the wasteland. Like fighting super mutants and raiders and stuff. You know, just being a good guy. Kinda like you, kid!"
"Heh, yeah, sure..." Lloyd said, leaning over the bar, burying his face in his hands.
Gob wished he could help the kid. Gob himself came from Underworld, located in the former Museum of Natural History in the ruins of the capital city. But Gob had never been to Galaxy News Radio, though he wanted to go there someday. Thus, he couldn't guide the vault dwellers to the building. Plus, with Moriarty technically owning him, he couldn't leave. Gob was depressed by this, but he tried to not let it get to him. He knew he'd outlive Moriarty someday, and then he would be free. Ghouls live much longer than normal humans. He hoped the 'outliving Moriarty' part of his plan would come sooner rather than later.
Lloyd looked up when he noticed someone sitting next to him at the bar. It was Nova, the prostitute in Moriarty's employ. She took a drag on her cigarette. Lloyd was beginning to notice that she always had one.
"That's not very healthy for you," Lloyd said.
"Neither's banging a buncha guys every week, kid," she said, inhaling the nicotine. "We all do unhealthy things. Take you, for example, you want to go to D.C., and you're judging me for smoking." She smiled. "You're pretty stupid, kid."
"I don't need to sit here and take insults from a prostitute," Lloyd said, standing up. "I'm above it."
"I know who can take you, kid."
That gave Lloyd pause. "Who?"
She smiled. "He comes in here pretty often, orders up a big tab of drinks, passes out and then everybody drags him home. He's a sad guy, when you get down to it. Ex-raider like him misses it out there in the wastes. He could write a novel about how much he'd like to get back to doing what he does best. If he knew how to write or read."
Lloyd thought for a moment. "You don't mean..."
She laughed, flicking her now-dead cigarette aside. "You want Jericho, kid. He's been all over the ruins in his life, and you better believe that he can take you there. Hell of a shot too. Good luck." With that, she pushed past Lloyd and walked upstairs.
Lloyd's mind was reeling with the new information. 'Jericho...'
As Lloyd turned to leave, someone sitting not too far away felt like jumping up and getting his attention. She was shy, unfortunately, and Lloyd simply left the saloon, and her, behind him before she could say a word. Lucy sighed, rubbing the paper note she had hidden beneath the table she sat at. She really would've liked to have spoken with Lloyd.
While Lloyd had gone to the saloon to find Billy, Amata was decided to speak with Moira at Craterside Supply over their next job. "Well!" Moira said, cheery as always, "I've got just the thing. There's a place northeast of here called Minefield. It's a ghost town, by all accounts. But it's apparently filled with landmines!"
Amata's eyes widened in surprise. "Landmines?"
Moira nodded. "Landmines. They're of a kind that I haven't seen too much before. Usually people always just make their own out of some explosives and whatever's lying around as a casing, but the ones in Minefield are military issued, highly lethal explosives. I'd like one to study!"
"Um... That sounds dangerous..." Amata said.
"Oh, no, it's easy! These old ones have a bright, flashy button right in the middle, you see. Get close enough and be fast enough, and you can press it, instantly disarming it!" Moira beamed. Amata was greatly unsure of this.
"Who put them there?" Amata asked.
"That'd be nice to find out. Say," she said, rubbing her chin, "if you could get to the center of the town, by all accounts there's a playground there you see, you could probably learn a lot about the place. I think it should be on your handy-dandy wrist thingy there, on the map."
Amata pulled up the map on her Pip-Boy. Sure enough, Moira had marked the location of the town in her map data.
"We'll check it out, Moira. We'll see you when we get back," she said, and turned to leave.
As usual, Moira called out, "Try not to die!"
As Amata exited Craterside Supply, Lloyd suddenly walked past her, muttering only the smallest of greetings. "Hey, Lloyd," she called after him, intent on telling him what Moira wanted them to do.
"Sorry, hold that thought please," he said, walking away. Confused, she ran up behind h
im.
"What is it Lloyd? Something wrong?" she asked.
"Just hold on a minute, I'm trying to get into a certain mindset," he told her, not looking back.
Her brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"Just trust me."
He walked into the center of the town, not too far away from the now-disabled bomb. He looked to the Brass Lantern, where the man he sought was sitting. He wore leather armor, had an eye patch over one eye and his hair was closely shaven. His skin was a dark tan, and weathered with experience. He was smoking a cigarette while downing some squirrel stew.
"Jericho," he called out. Amata stopped in her tracks, shocked by Lloyd's desire to speak with the intimidating raider. Why did he want to?
Jericho looked back in surprise. When he saw Lloyd, his look soured.
"The fuck do you want, kid?" he sneered.
Lloyd cleared his throat. "I want you to take me to D.C. so I can get to Galaxy News Radio." Roughly ten people in earshot stopped doing what they were doing to watch the sudden events. For a moment, all was silent and still. Jenny, Billy, and looking down from above, Walter, eagerly awaited to see Jericho's response.
Jericho, still seated on a stool, broke out into laughter. He laughed heartily, a rather unusual sight, given the nature of his character.
"You, you, you," he said, trying to stifle his laughter, "you want me, me! To take your prim and proper asses all the way to D.C.? And for what?" He laughed again.
Lloyd didn't back down. "If you refuse, you're a coward."
Jericho stopped laughing. "Fuck did you say?" He stood up. Lloyd was well aware of a dangerous assault rifle strapped to his back, well within the former raider's quick reach.
Lloyd smirked, his eyebrows narrow and his stare unblinking. "I know you, Jericho. I know why you get drunk and thrown out of the Brass Lantern every night. I know why you mope around and act like an asshole to everybody."
Jericho scoffed. "Shut the fuck up, kid. You don't know me." He pointed to his chest. "This guy, right here? He's a fucking mystery to you."
"You don't like it here, do you Jericho? Megaton?" Lloyd asked.
Jericho paused for a moment. "Fuck does that matter? Doesn't have a goddamn thing to do with anything."
"You don't like any place like this. You like it out there," Lloyd pointed to the top of the city walls as he spoke, "in the wasteland. It's where you were born Jericho, it's where you belong. It's the only place you feel like you actually matter."
Amata was growing concerned. What was Lloyd doing here? He wasn't acting like himself. He was being accusatory, as if calling Jericho's manhood into question. Is this what he meant by a certain mindset? A kind of bravado to goad the raider? She hoped Jericho wouldn't look up at her. She wasn't as good at hiding her emotions as Lloyd, and she might blow his cover. But she couldn't turn away; she needed to see what was going to happen.
Jericho stormed up to Lloyd. Though he was older, Lloyd was fairly tall and could look him right in the eyes. Or rather, eye.
"What the fuck are you getting at, kid? So what if I get drunk and hate this oversized, rusted shithole. It's a living. I don't need smart-assed little kids telling me to clean my act up."
"It's not your living, and I'm not telling you that you have to stop." Lloyd smirked. "I could give your old life back to you, Jericho. You can go back out there with a group, just like when you ran with the raiders."
Jericho paused, his mouth slightly agape. Lloyd continued.
"You know you want to get back out there, Jericho. So do I. I killed a group of raiders two days ago in the wastes." Lloyd didn't like the fact he was bragging about it, but he knew what was necessary. Though he really did not like the man, Lloyd needed Jericho. And to get him on his side, he would need to win him over with a really good offer. "You could join me, Jericho. I help you, you help me. I get what I want, you get what you want."
Jericho stepped back a couple paces and appeared to be deep in thought. Lloyd internally crossed his fingers, and hoped Jericho wouldn't notice his forming sweat.
The smallest hint of a smile formed on the old raider's face. "Alright kid," Jericho said. Lloyd's hope rose. "I'll join up with you. But you better fucking deliver on your end of the bargain."
Lloyd nodded. "There'll be plenty of action out there, Jericho. More than enough for all of us."
"I'll just need a thousand caps for supplies, and I'll be ready to go."
Somewhere, in Lloyd's mind, a train of thought crashed.
"...What?" Lloyd said, rather dumbly. "I... I don't have that money, Jericho..."
The cocky attitude on Jericho's face was quickly dropped. "Then what the fuck didja get my hopes up for? Fuckin' hell kid, for a minute I actually fucking believed you. I actually fucking believed you," he said, turning to leave.
Lloyd's plan had failed. He hadn't anticipated this. He had to react quickly.
"Jericho!" he shouted, demanding the man's attention. Jericho turned around. "I can get you that money."
"I need that money for ammo, food and other shit, kid. There's no way I'm going back out there unless I'm prepared." Jericho struck up a new cigarette. After taking a puff, he spoke again. "So, you get me the money, and I'll take you to D.C., cause without it, out of the fucking question."
With that, the former raider went back to the Brass Lantern and resumed sitting.
Lloyd could finally breathe easy. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and found it to be Amata's.
"Lloyd..." she started, "...I don't know if this is a good idea."
Lloyd nodded. "I understand. But I don't see any other options. Billy won't go on account of Maggie, Gob can't go on account of Moriarty, and Jericho... he's the only one with the experience and knowledge we need, all rolled into one. And he's willing to do it... for the right price, that is."
"How can you be sure he won't... kill us?" Amata said. Lloyd looked at her in surprise.
"What?"
She closed her eyes to concentrate on the facts in her head. "He's a raider, Lloyd... he got old, got left behind by his old raider buddies, came here because he had nothing else to do, and the only reason he hasn't killed everyone here is because he'd be attacking all alone. Lucas and the citizens would take him down in a second." She looked up at him. "Out there, in no man's land... there's nothing to stop him from... you know."
Lloyd hadn't considered any of that. He put his hands on her shoulders to calm her. "That's not going to happen."
"How do you know?" she asked. "It can't be a judge of good character on your part."
Lloyd chuckled. "I understand your worry, Amata. But think about it: if he killed us, he'd be all alone again. He'd come back here, and then he would fall back into the routine he's grown to hate." He turned back to look at Jericho, who was still eating. "He won't kill us, Amata. He won't kill us because we're his best shot at living life the way he wants to live it."
Amata was silent. Even though she didn't like it, in a way he was right. To her relief, she knew that Lloyd didn't like being right either.
"I got a job from Moira," Amata changed the topic. "We have to go to the middle of a ghost town full of landmines and see what's up with the place before be bring a landmine back.
Lloyd laughed at her brief summary of the rather ridiculous task. "What's it called? Minefield?"
She put her hands on her hips and fixed him with a knowing look. "I'd say you're amazingly right, but I know it's on your Pip-Boy map too and that's why you know," she said.
"Honest to god, I had forgotten." He hadn't, of course. He had casually browsed past the place on his map before, but paid it no heed at the time. "Completely guessed at the name."
"You're not too good at lying," she said, pulling him close. He smiled as he leaned down to kiss her.
"Everything will be alright, Amata. Trust me."
Jericho looked back and caught a glimpse of the two of them. He shook his head in disgust. 'Fucking kids...'
Still, he couldn't help but feel a bit young himself. Lloyd had made him an offer he would be stupid to refuse, a chance to live as he once had when he was younger. Lloyd would earn the money, provided he didn't get killed doing so. Jericho smirked as he thought to himself, 'I guess I should start writing up a grocery list.'
Lloyd and Amata soon strapped up, armoring their jumpsuits with the equipment Moira had given them. After slipping on the harnesses, belts and backpacks, they checked their guns briefly before leaving Megaton, heading north for Minefield.
Though their time of departure had nothing to do with the time of the attack, it was almost exactly one hour after they left when Megaton was assaulted. The time of the attack was strategic: there wasn't a caravan out front of the town, meaning that Billy wouldn't be able to warn the town in advance. The sniper that kept watch, Stockholm, wasn't at his post, which was extremely rare. They waited for him to leave to use the bathroom.
The mercenaries of Talon Company, wearing black combat armor and wielding powerful weapons, stormed the front gate of Megaton. They blasted Deputy Weld to pieces with an advanced laser rifle. The front gate was sealed, but a planted charge, detonated seconds later, created a gap wide enough for them.
In his cell, Burke stirred, hearing the noise from the explosion. He quickly readied himself.
Nobody in the town could react too quickly, and by the time word had spread, Talon Company was already breaking into the jail beneath Lucas' house and busting out Burke. One of their company carried a missile launcher, and shot it into the town square, the rocket screeching as it soared through the air, its explosion upon impact kicking up smoke and dust, serving as a good distraction.
Jericho, Lucas and some of the others, Stockholm included, fought against the mercenaries as best they could. Of the ten attacking mercs, three were killed. Efficiently, they evacuated Burke, with men providing covering fire for the men rushing him out. Talon Company was gone, running out into the wastes. With wounded to attend to, Lucas couldn't organize an attack party to follow them. And even if he did, the next engagement would still be on their terms, as they would watch for followers.
Lucas knew that Talon Company had won. Their fast, risky strategy had paid off. Burke had gotten away, and there was nothing he could do about it. Not now, anyway. After helping reorganize the injured, sending them off to Doc Church at the clinic, Lucas went home to write a letter to a group of people he knew. Though Lucas had taken up permanent residency in Megaton, he still carried some weight with the Regulators, stationed in the north. They would know what to do.
Lucas sighed in frustration. He didn't want to start a war between his old organization and Talon Company. But it seemed like there were no other options. Talon Company had to pay.
Wasteland justice was sometimes a complicated thing.
During the attack, five citizens of Megaton were killed. Four settlers were killed, all with no family. Save for the fifth, which was Leo Stahl, the brother of Jenny and Andy, owners of the Brass Lantern.
Andy Stahl felt guilt. He felt incredible, undeniable guilt. He had been in talks with Mr. Burke, before the man's arrest, about blowing up the town and moving the Brass Lantern to a more lucrative area on Burke's property, Tenpenny Tower. Though it would involve the murder of everyone in the town, he never wanted his brother or sister to be harmed. Had he gone through with Burke's offer, he would've moved his family out.
If Andy had just told Lucas about Burke, then maybe... maybe he wouldn't have to bury his brother. Jenny and Leo were the only family he had, and though he didn't get along with them the best, he knew that Leo deserved better. If Andy had spent more time with his brother, then maybe he could have helped Leo's drug addiction. Not too many people knew about Leo's double life as a junkie.
Jenny felt terrible, worse than Andy. She cried over Leo's freshly dug grave, weeping for their lost brother and all that he could have been. Though she wanted nothing more than those Talon Company mercenaries dead, she wasn't in a position to avenge their brother.
Andy, however, was. He knew where Burke was going. And he knew what he was going to do once he got his hands on him.
Wasteland justice was sometimes a simple thing.
Burke washed his face with a rag that one of the mercenaries had given him. After he had finished cleansing his face, he tossed the rag into the dirt. It would be about a day's walk back to Tenpenny Tower.
"Gentlemen, I must compliment your work," he spoke to them. "I'll be paying each of you double, in addition to the bonus you get from the losses your team suffered. After all, we're not going to give their share to their corpses." The mercenaries chuckled at his joke.
"What's the plan when we get back to the tower, boss?" the mercenary leader, a man named Jabsco, asked.
Burke laughed to himself as he smiled wickedly. "There're some wayward vault dwellers than need to be disposed of."